


playin' that same old game

by superstarrgirl



Category: One Direction (Band)
Genre: Abusive Louis, Abusive Relationship, Briefest of brief mention of Zayn, Drabble, Hurting Niall, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-04-23
Updated: 2014-04-23
Packaged: 2018-01-20 11:57:05
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 351
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1509626
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/superstarrgirl/pseuds/superstarrgirl
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>The boy in the mirror is a boy who thought he could change a hurt man but only ended up exactly the same.</p>
            </blockquote>





	playin' that same old game

**Author's Note:**

> It's really short, it's really late, I'm really tired, I'm really in love with Gabrielle Aplin's album English Rain and I've been really concentrating on a new story that I'm hoping will be up soon. Hope you like this lil thing!

Niall counts the bruises in the bathroom mirror – _one two three four_ – and cleans the cut on his wrist until the blood stops and he forgets about the sting of his wrist and eye and everything else.

Louis patters past the door, hesitates for a moment, and then keeps moving, whistling to himself as he does. Niall doesn’t realize he’s stopped breathing until his chest starts to hurt and tears are threatening to spill from his grip on his own wrist. Niall doesn’t realize he’s stopped breathing until it feels almost too late.

He braces his arms on the porcelain sink that’s seemingly always stained in dull blood and takes in three long breaths before blinking upward. His gaze finds the boy in the mirror, and he doesn’t recognize him.

The boy in the mirror has a black ring around his eye and a split upper lip; hair messed up from being dragged across the kitchen floor. As he lifts his arm to gently probe at the damage, he sees the scars that Zayn asked about two months ago even though Niall thought he covered them up well enough, and he got a glass thrown at his head for being _careless/stupid/idiotic/what if they saw can you imagine what that would look like for me._

Niall remembers Louis’ voice that night, how hard and calloused his hand had been striking across Niall’s cheek. How for days after Louis had been the sweetest-kindest-most loving person on the face of the planet and Niall had thought ‘maybe he’s changed, maybe I can stay, maybe he loves me.’

Three days later, and they were back playing the same game that never seemed to end.

The boy in the mirror that stares back at Niall has eyes full of fear, mistrust. Niall doesn’t remember ever seeing his eyes so afraid, so closed and so terrified of a blow that had yet to fall but had been falling for two years. 

The boy in the mirror is a boy who thought he could change a hurt man but only ended up exactly the same.


End file.
